Whirling flight toy



June 3, 1958 J. B. FRAZELLE WHIRLING FLIGHT Toy I Filed oct. 25. 1954United States Patent I 2,837,077 WHIRLING rLiGHrToY Jay B. Frazelle,Encino, Calif. Application October 25, 1954, Serial No. 464,237 6Claims. (Cl. 124-16) My inventionrelates to toys of the type in which apart is propelled intoA the air by resilient means connected to a partheld in the hand.

Many toys of this general type have obtained considerable popularityamong children for a time; however they generally suffered from somedrawback such as using elastic bands, which wear out or break or throwthe flight member to a distance, often landing at some unpredictablepoint which may be on a roof or in a tree, and sometimes requiredmechanical launching devices which sooner or later became inoperative.Other such toys employed miniature airplanes, which having to be light.in construction were easily damaged or broken in rough landings or inhitting buildings or trees.

A toy which propels a ilight member into the air has a strong appeal forchildren, particularly when the direction of flight can be` controlled.

It is an object of my invention to provide a toy of the kind justdescribed which provides a novel performance of the part propelled intothe air although the manipulation of the toy is very simple and iscapable of operation by children as young as six or seven years.

It is another object of my invention to provide a toy having a part heldin the hand and a ight member which is thrown into the air by aresilient member secured to said part, the resilient member beingstressed 'by the use of the flight member as a lever so that theresilient member may be placed under considerable stress with littleeffort tof the player.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a novel andinteresting toy which is inexpensive to make and is comprised of fewparts so that it is free from the drawback of becoming useless becauseof the loss of parts.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective View of the toy of my invention with the partpropelled into the air in position to be released by the player, thefingers of the players other hand shown in dotted lines having been usedto bring the parts into operative position.

Figure 1a is a fragmentary view, partly in section, showing the form ofa notch provided in the rod shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary view drawn on a larger scale showing themovement of the part propelled into the air when the player releases hishold on it, the dotted lines showing the commencement of the whirlingflight of the part or ight member being projected into the air.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view showing the member in unstressedposition.

Figure 4 is a detail view drawn on an enlarged scale of one form of ahook member with which the resilient member may be furnished.

Figure 5 is a plan view on an enlarged scale of the flight member of thetoy.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view showing another form ofresilient member. l

Referring now to Figure l of the drawings, numeral ice indicates a rodwhich may be of wooden dowelling of about /e" diameter and 9 incheslong. It will be understood that dimensions are given only in order tomake clear the arrangement of one satisfactory embodiment of theinvention and are not limitative of the invention, being stated by wayof illustration only.

Slightly more than 2 inches from one end of the rod a notch 11 isprovided having parallel side walls, the form of the notch being-moreclearly shown in Figure la from which it will be seen that the notchextends vpart way through the thickness of the rod 10 and is given thecontour of the tip 13 of the arms of flight member 12 when thelongitudinal axis of the arm is inclined at about a' downward angle ofbetween 40 to 45 to the longitudinal axis of the rod. Preferably acutout 11a is provided in one or both'said walls of the notch so theproper entry of the tip of an arm of the ight member therein may beseen. In the specific embodiment being described the flight member isformed from a pair of crossed wooden strips about wide and 4.5 inches inlength with Vsemi-circular ends. It will be noted that when the flightmember arm is sloped downwardly the end thereof is solidly held againstmovement in an inward direction from a position at right angles to therod until the 45 position is attained. However as the arm 12 is rotatedupwardly beyond the 90 position by the resilient member or spring, theupper outer edge 14 of the notch becomes a fulcrum against which bearsthe upper edge of the arm, the end of which was engaged in the notch.The strips forming the flight member may be secured together by a strongwaterproof adhesive preferably reinforced by staples driven through thestrips.

The resilient member is formed as a helical tension spring 15, one end16 of which is secured by a rivet 17 extending through the rod 10 nearthe end thereof. The free end of the resilient member 15 is furnishedwith a hook member 18 the form of which is designed to ensure that theflight member, when the latter is released, will leave the hook 19without any binding occurring between the hook and said member; theopposite end or shank 20 is shaped to extend into the spring and aid itin returning to its unstressed form. It will be noted that the hook 19is spaced considerably below the hole 20a in the shank by which the hookmember is secured to the spring.

Since the flight member as shown is in the form of a strip, that'is tosay with opposite surfaces in parallel planes, the opening in the hook19 is rectangular, but preferably the bottom of the opening is slightlyrounded as shown at 21 in Figure 4 to present a smooth edge to the edgeof the flight member.

A slightly different form of resilient member is shown in Figure 6 inwhich a helical spring 22 is formed with a straightened end 22a whichmay be pushed through a hole 23 near the upper end of the rod and theprojecting end bent over to securely attach the upper end of the springto the rod; a hooked end 24 is provided at the lower end of the spring,the hook 25 of which is spaced from the end of the spring and made tolie in a plane generally normal to the side faces of the ight member soas to avoid the point of the hook catching against the face of thestrip.

As clearly shown in Figure 5, a number of spaced notches 26 areprovided' in at least one edge of a strip between an end and theintersection of the strips. lf preferred similar notches may be providedin similar positionson the other arms of the ight member on one edge asshown or on both edges. The purpose of the notches is to enable the endof the resilient member to be securely engaged with an edge of an arm ofthe ight member when the spring is being stressed but to enable the ightmember, whenreleased, to part cleanly from the spring.

vPatented June 3, 1958.l

assign?? The greatest tension will be given the spring when engaged withthe notch furthest from the end of the arm and the least tension whenthe spring is engaged with the notch nearest the end of the arm.

While, as shown in the drawings, the flight member 12 is formed fromflat crossed Wooden strips with parallel edges and rounded ends, it isto be noted that other coniigurations of the flight member may beutilized, but the form shown is inexpensive to produce, light in weightand strong and performs well in use.

The toy described is operated by holding the rod l in one hand, holdingthe llight member in the other hand and placing a selected edge notch ofan arm in the hook of the spring, engaging the end of that end in thenotch 11 in the rod by pulling downwardly on the other end of the armwhile holding up the rod, and fully stretching the spring by moving thenext end of an arm toward the rod until the latter is close enough tothe hand holding the rod to be held between the thumb and rst finger.The rod is then slanted upwardly in the direction in which the flightmember is to be fired and the grip on said member released. The tlightmember will then be snapped upwardly by the spring with avery rapidwhirling motion and will ily upwardly to a considerable distance. Instill air the flight member will reach a maximum height and then returnapproximately along the path taken in ascending and land close to theplayer.

It is to be noted that the flight member is used to furnish the power totension the spring which may be relatively stiff but is readilystretched because of the leverage existing between the fulcrum providedby engagement of the end of the arm in the notch in the rod and theconnection of the spring to said arm between the fulcrum and the pointat which effort is applied and conversely the spring exerts a verypowerful effort on the flight member when the latter is released pullingthe flight member simultaneously upward and giving it a rotary motion.

The spring may be relatively short ensuring that the flight memberclears the end of the rod notwithstanding its whirling motion.

While I have described and illustrated an embodiment of my invention atpresent preferred by me, it is to be understood that various changes maybe made therein by those skilled in the art without departing fro-m thescope of the invention as intended to be defined by the scope of theappended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A toy comprising: a rod adapted to be held toward one end in one handof the player, said rod being provided at a point toward but spaced fromthe free end thereof with an abutment; a resilient member secured by oneend to the upper end of the rod; and a ilight member having a pluralityof arms arranged substantially in a common plane and extending from acommon center, the end of one of said arms being engaged against saidabutment and detachably engaged, between the center of said llightmember and the end of the arm engaged with the abutment, with saidresilient member, said arm being used as a lever to stress saidresilient member by the' player pulling the free end of the arm towardthe held end and thereafter suddenly released to cause the flight memberto be propelled into the air with a whirling motion by said stressedresilient member in returning to an unstressed condition.

2. A toy comprising: a rod adapted to be held directed upwardly in onehand of the player, said rod being provided at a point toward but spacedfrom the free end of the rod with a notch extending part way through therod; a resilient member secured by one end to 'the upper end of the rod;and a flight member having a plurality of planiform projecting arms, atleast one of said arms being provided along the edge portion with spacednotches located between the mid-length of the arm and its end; and meanson the free end of the resilient member adapted to engage one of saidnotches to enable the resilient member to be tensioned by engaging thenotched end of the arm, with the notches facing away from the free endof the rod, inthe notch in the rod and rotating the opposite end of thearm about the end received inthe notch and toward the rod, release ofsaid opposite end causing the flight member to be thrown violently intothe air with a whirling motion by the resilient member.

3. A toy as set forth in claim 2 and in which said resilient member isformed as a coil spring secured at its upper end to said rod; and a hookmember projecting from the lower end of said spring and connectedthereto and spaced from the lower end thereof by a straight portion toprevent the spring from interfering with the flight v member during thecommencement of the llight thereof.

4. A toy as set forth in claim 2 and in which said light membercomprises a plurality of crossed at strips secured together at theircenter, the ends of the strips being shaped to lit closely in the notchin the rod when a strip is being used to stress said resilient member,but to be moved out of said notch by the pull of said resilient memberwhen the flight member is released, the engagement of the upper edge ofthe notch in the rod with the arm while being moved out of the notchimparting a rapid whirling motion to said flight member combined with a`forward movement in the direction the rod is pointed.

5. A toy yas set forth in claim 4 and in which the ends of the stripsare semicircular and the notch in the rod is formed with walls fittingaround the endof a strip when the latter is inserted edgewise into saidnotch with the longitudinal axis of the strip at an acute angle to thelongitudinal axis of the rod and sloping toward the held end of the rod.

6. A toy as set forth in claim 3 and in which said hook member comprisesan elongated body portion secured to the lower end of the spring andextending downwardly from the lower end of the spring to the hook, andupwardly from the lower end of the spring into the interior of thespring.

References Cited in the ille of this lpatent UNITED STATES PATENTS539,183 Lewis May 14, 1895 1,040,702 Lee Oct. 8,' 1912 FOREIGN PATENTS`7,466 Great Britain 1913

